The Universe:
{meanwhile, Ethan stops walking and round on Loch} Really? *Really*? You tell the *King* we’re talking about.. *that*?The Universe:
{Loch smirks, doesn’t even slow his step as he heads for the music room} And what were *you* gonna tell him, Ethan, that *didn’t* start with “uh.. well, I want on your woman but it’s bad idea so friend zoning myself was my grand plan”? {shakes his head} You’re friendzoned now, mother fucker. Now let’s go find her and try and let her know what we just told the king.The Universe:
{Tristan looks at Ethan} You were totally going to say something about how you told her she was like a sister to you for all very right reasons but *not* reasons you want the king to know.The Universe:
{Akhiro smiles at Ethan} Today, you’ve been your own worst enemy damn near every step of the way.The Cosmos:
{Izzy smiles} Only where that’s concerned.The Universe:
{Ethan looks at Izzy, smiles} It’s just one of those days were *almost* everything that can go wrong, has.The Cosmos:
{Izzy nods} I’ve had days like that.The Universe:
{Ethan nods} I don’t *usually*, but fuck, when it rains.The Cosmos:
{Saige smiles} Tomorrow it has to be better.

Related Images:

The Universe:
{Aiden sits at the same table he did the morning before with Samuel, Brennan, David, Loch, Christopher and Conrad}The Universe:
{Tristan, Akhiro, Van, Ethan, and Ro sit at another table}The Universe:
{with Constantine and Pope}The Universe:
{And Cameron}The Universe:
{Alexei sits with Jace, Gabe who’s on his laptop and Seth}The Universe:
{Aaron sits near but not really with Aiden’s group}The Universe:
{David watches Seth eat, whispers to Loch} I wonder if that’s *real* bacon on his plate.The Cosmos:
{Bree sits with Seth, reaches over and plucks a piece of bacon off his plate, smiles at him}The Universe:
{Loch glances over, whispers to David} Here’s hopin’.

Related Images:

Boys:
<Samuel answers after a couple of rings> Whaddya need, darlin’?Girls:
<Aubrey smiles and drops her tone> What are you wearing, baby?Boys:
<Samuel smiles, shakes his head> You really wanna ask me that right now? I was just shovelin’ stalls.Boys:
<Sorrow smiles, listening>

Related Images:

Boys:
<In addition to the usual suspects (the band and Van), Christopher and Morose are there with Sorrow who’s had a few hours of sleep, they’re sitting around talking and Loch is trying to get Sorrow to spill>Boys:
<Sorrow sits on the couch, one arm draped across the back of it, his leg crossed over his knee, smiles> Dude. Seriously. *Maybe* I’ll come clean about her in my memoirs or some shit, but that’s it. <shrugs> Though there *might* be a character based on her in one of my books.Boys:
<Christopher sits on the edge of the coffee table, smiles, looks at Loch> Why are you so rabid about it when you never asked *me* about her?Boys:
<Loch looks at Christopher smiles> Because we already know *you’re* too nice to say shit.Boys:
<Ethan texts Sang what Sorrow said about he might have a book with a Bree based character>

Related Images:

Boys:
<inside>Boys:
<on stage, the boys are playing “Everything I Wanna Do”>

Girls:
<Aubrey walks onto the stage and over to Loch, whispers in his ear while he’s playing> Can you do Godzilla? Doesn’t have to be next.

Boys:
<Loch looks at Aubrey, arches a brow, whispers back> Godzilla? <pulls back and looks at her thoughtfully, nods, leans in again and whispers in her ear> Only because you’ve never done this before and I’m feelin’ generous.Boys:
<the boys at the table look at each other while the boys on stage continue playing despite looking confused>Boys:
<Morose sits back down next to Anguish>

Related Images:

Loch watched the girls walk in and head to the stage. He kissed Saige like she’d been gone years instead of days, then watched the girls head back to their seats but still that feeling persisted. Christopher started playing “Night Moves,” and the audience seemed to fade into formless shadows. Loch thought about the years that had passed and the years yet to come, how much more quickly the days passed as you got older. He thought about all the little moments that seemed inconsequential until you looked back and realized they made up the whole, until you realized they were everything and how easily they were wasted or went unappreciated. Loch turned his attention back to the guitar, nodding in time to the beat. He pulled the microphone from the stand and said, “We do a lot of songs about new relationships and beginnings. This one’s for the old ones. The people we left behind while we moved on.” He started to sing.

I was a little too tallCould’ve used a few poundsTight pants points hardly reknownShe was a black-haired beauty with big dark eyesAnd points all her own sitting way up highWay up firm and high

David joined on the drums, smiling and shaking his head. This song brought back memories, not just for him, but for everyone. Every boy had a woman like the one Loch was singing about now, that girl that, way back when. But David had married his. At the table, Samuel introduced the girls to Morose and Anguish who said hello and turned their attention back to the stage. When “Night Moves” ended, the band played through Nickelback’s “Photograph” and while that one garnered a fair bit of audience involvement, it was the song that came after that got the lighters out and waving around. Loch stepped back from the mic and started playing, taking over for Christopher as Christopher took over the vocals. The crowd erupted on the first verse, most singing along as there wasn’t a soul in the place that didn’t know Boston’s “More Than a Feeling” word for word and note for note.

I looked out this morning and the sun was goneTurned on some music to start my dayI lost myself in a familiar songI closed my eyes and I slipped away

The crowd erupted again on the high note and as Loch’s fingers moved over the strings of his guitar. Loch let the music take him, forgetting the crowd and the stage, forgetting this was a show and he was performing. He sang back up along with Ethan while Akhiro and Tristan danced around on the stage. It was like being back in the garage in high school, or at least as close as it could be. They weren’t the boys they’d been then, thinking they really got the meaning behind the music. They were men now and now they felt each and every note and word more than they ever could have hoped to then, because then, they hadn’t been through all the heartaches and losses. Then, they didn’t have the same regrets they did now. At that age, they didn’t understand that you could never truly go back and thought things would be the same forever. This was the first song they’d ever played together, it was the song they’d held up as their anthem. School dances, friend’s parties, anywhere, any time they played, this was the song they either began or ended with.

It’s more than a feeling, when I hear that old song they used to play (more than a feeling)I begin dreaming (more than a feeling)‘Till I see Marianne walk awayI see my Marianne walkin’ away

So many people have come and goneTheir faces fade as the years go byYet I still recall as I wander onAs clear as the sun in the summer sky

Four minutes, forty four seconds Christopher would tell you if you asked him, More Than a Feeling was the very definition of a classic and very nearly hit the five minute mark that songs used to aspire to when music was music and creating it was the pastime of creative genius. It was a song none of them needed to practice, because they’d been singing it all their lives and Christopher’s voice was perfectly tuned for it. And while Morose watched him from the audience, laughing to Anguish about “his boy” and “that’s how you sing a high note”, his fingers against moved against his thumb as if he himself was holding a guitar. It was a song familiar even to him and Anguish to such an extent he couldn’t help but move his fingers along an imaginary instrument.

It’s more than a feeling, when I hear that old song they used to play (more than a feeling)I begin dreaming (more than a feeling)‘Till I see Marianne walk awayI see my Marianne walkin’ away

When I’m tired and thinking coldI hide in my music, forget the dayAnd dream of a girl I used to knowI closed my eyes and she slipped awayShe slipped away

It’s more than a feeling, when I hear that old song they used to play (more than a feeling)I begin dreaming (more than a feeling)‘Till I see Marianne walk away

When the song faded out, a respectful silence fell over the crowd for a few seconds as the song left them humbled. Loch had pulled them into his universe, if only for four minutes and forty four seconds, and that feeling of surreality hung over the bar like that moment was being captured by some greater force. The boys on the stage looked at each other, remembering who they’d been and how they’d started. Loch leaned into his microphone and said, “Christopher.. give ’em somethin’ they can move to.” And then the moment was broken as Christopher, grabbing the mic with both hands, screamed into it with all the attitude of a true Philadelphian bad boy.

Morose burst out laughing and stood, applauding and cheering loudly along with Brennan and Seth. Anguish did the same only kept his seat. There was no way anyone back home was going to believe this so he started the video cam on his phone so he’d have proof. There was no doubt these people had corrupted Christopher somehow, not that he thought many people would complain about it. Akhiro and David were the only two instruments necessary, the rest of the boys sang back up and Misanthropy proceeded to live up to the hype and shake the Rock Bottom to it’s foundations.

You can catch me on the speedtrain,Beeper in a three-way,Shinin’ with the gleam chain,And your honey givin’ me brain,You can catch me watchin’ AI,Mellow, it’s game time,Pinkie with the same shine,Pitbull and a canine

You know I rep’ this shit,I got it tatted on my skin,If you fuckin’ with my city,Then you fuckin’ with my kin,You know I rep’ this shit,I got my hands up on your chest,Motherfuckers best believe it,That you’re fuckin’ with the best

The crowd was up on their feet, the men fueled by false bravado such songs tends to inspire in their testosterone addled bodies. Bodies clashed despite the lack of a dance floor. And Samuel, amused as fuck by the whole thing, left the table and slipped out the back door to call Aiden and fill him in.

Related Images:

Friday night found Loch alone in the backstage area that also passed as the band’s dressing room. He sat in a barber’s chair staring into the mirror on the wall. He hadn’t questioned Aubrey about her “minor surgery”, figuring he’d just forget about it. Instead, he found himself thinking about it more and more. Currently, he was trying to do the math, which wasn’t exactly his strongest subject. He thought about the last time he was with her and every guy she’d been with since. That he knew of.

In a town this small, gossip spread like wildfire, especially when the local cops liked to talk shop at the only diner in town. Word of Aubrey’s arrest had already gotten around. And Loch himself had been in the diner when said cops were talking about it. Being on good terms with a couple of them, Loch had gone over and dug for information. Now, everyone knew about Aubrey and her “free-spirited” ways. The cops talked about how they’d called her boss to bail her out and went on to speculate about the true nature of their relationship. Especially since Samuel went down to the station and bailed her out. They joked about how she’d be repaying that loan and one of them even suggested the notion that Samuel was her sugar daddy. Loch pointed out that the hot little red-head in the band was Samuel’s woman and one of them retorted that not even that would help him keep his cock in his pants if he arrested Aubrey.

For the most part, Loch had forgotten about it, but now he wasn’t so sure. Aubrey had an amazing body and there were times even now when he was alone that he still thought about the nights he’d spent exploring it. But those thoughts weren’t always just stroke material. Loch had a sentimental side that most people, even his closest friends, weren’t even aware of. Once in a while, he still thought about most of the girls he’d been with and in many cases, wrote songs about them and the good times they’d had. In fact, he had a secret stash of such songs that no one even knew existed. And a few of them were about Aubrey. He even had a favorite classic rock song that reminded him of her every time he listened to it. And he listened to it whenever he was feeling nostalgic. He found himself feeling that way now and decided the band would open with Aubrey’s song tonight. And if Loch wasn’t with Saige, he’d probably be all over Aubrey. As it was, he wished Saige would hurry the hell up and get home as he pulled out his phone and checked it again. He missed her and had no intention of starting the show before she got there.

————————————–

While the girls were gone, the boys felt their absence more acutely than most of them would probably openly admit. When not practicing or hanging out at the Rock, they spent their time in smaller groups. Ethan spent most of his time with Christopher, Ciara and Ryan. Ryan seemed to get along especially well with Ciara. While he could talk to Nikki about the clinic aspect of death and mortuary work, it was effortless to slip into conversations with Ciara about the spiritual side of it. Van spent his time with Seth. Loch and David hung out with Samuel and Brennan, dividing their time between the two ranches, getting stoned and mostly talking shit about “bitches and ho’s” and comparing notes on the women they knew and had been with. Anguish and Morose joined them once they arrived and even managed to get Christopher involved on the way to the Rock.

—————————————

While Loch sat in the dressing room, David, Brennan and Christopher set up the stage and performed the sound check. Tristan and Akhiro went into the dressing room to pretty themselves up, talking back and forth from either side of Loch who was feeling disconnected, like he was in some kind of alternate universe. There but not there. In fact, the whole night was feeling very surreal to him. Van and Seth took their usual seats with Anguish, Morose and Samuel. Once everything was set up, Brennan joined them at the table while Christopher went backstage with David.

When the boys were headed to the stage to start the show, Loch pulled Christopher aside and informed him that he’d be playing the opening number with them. Christopher headed to the stage and told the others about the change in plans. When the lights went down and the curtain went up, the only one missing was Loch. The boys stood quietly, waiting for Loch to make his appearance which he did, clad in nothing but leather pants and boots. He went to his microphone, looked out over the crowd that was tense with anticipation, and after a moment, leaned into the mic and, in a low, deep, cigarette roughened voice, said, “We’re just gonna stand here and look pretty til my girls get here and show us all up.”

And that’s exactly what they did, which is why, when the girls arrived, the crowd went wild.

Related Images:

Boys:
<meanwhile, Brennan and the others come in through their various exits and head for the table while the band heads for the stage, Ethan passing Sang and kissing her on the way>Girls:
<Bree heads back stage as soon as she comes in>Girls:
<Saige stops and kisses Loch>Boys:
<Loch mauls her face nearly dragging her with him as he goes>Girls:
<Saige grabs a handful of his hair, to hold him, while she kisses him>Boys:
<Loch growls, breaking the kiss, smiles> I love you and you’re getting fucked incredibly hard later for that. <smacks her ass and heads off>Girls:
<Saige watches him go, smiling, sighs contentedly>

Related Images:

Boys:
<The band is on stage playing after having announced that tonight’s show is dedicated to Hayden’s father>Girls:
<some of the band wives watch the show, Aubrey and Saige are dancing, Hayden looks over at Brennan, teary eyed>Boys:
<Brennan looks at Hayden, smiles, reaches over under the table, takes her hand and squeezes it>Boys:
<Christopher sits with Ciara in his lap, watching the show>Girls:
<Hayden whispers to Brennan> Did you know they were going to do this?